Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Classic anti-Semitism, now thankfully out of style, has been replaced with vehement anti-Israeli hateful libels. The vilification, dehumanization, de-legitimization of Israel has become the weapon of choice for such people. If in the past the Jew was the scapegoat for the woes of the world today it is Israel. Every publication as this, when left unchallenged, is another blow to the legitimacy of Israel in the international arena. Don’t be confused between this kind of rhetoric and legitimate criticism. Israel, like any other democracy has made its share of mistakes and can be subjected to criticism. This is something else entirely. No country has been the target of such focused rage, diplomatic duplicity, hostile scrutiny and outrageous lies.

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Two forces are growing in Europe – a growing, aggressive, combative, radical version of Islam and an odious, malicious, vehement hatred of Israel. The latter may be a reaction to the former, thinking, ‘if the problem of Israel goes away, so will our problems with the Muslim world…’ This post is too short to point out the absolute fallacy and ridiculousness of such a claim.

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The West too suffers a pathology. A habit of “sitting on the fence”, giving equal weight to both “narratives”, trying to understand the conflict through the narrow prism of the electronic media, forcing a moral equivalency where none exists, the unwillingness to criticize a cultural norm or practice or belief system as such, for a noble yet misguided political correctness – these are all leading to a devastating blow that is yet to come. A day when Westerners will wake up to discover that their world, with all its values, mores, flexibilities, pluralism, rule of law, grace, equality, understanding and compromise – is no longer. Sitting on the fence is not an option any more. Forgiving the violence of radical Islamic groups will lead to more violence.